Belated Friday's Poetry Tips: What If?

This week I want you to try writing a poem that encompasses some version of “What if?” You could create a poem that starts out by asking the question or write a different version of a poem you already have to see how it turns out. What if you tried a different ending to an existing fairy tale for a poem? What if your life ended sooner rather than later? What if you live much longer than you anticipate, what might you see in the future? The possibilities are endless, good luck to those of you who try it out!

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Poetry Magazine Open Submissions

Now you can submit poems on-line to Poetry magazine and they have it set up so you can keep track of your submissions. Poetry has always had the credo of accepting any kind of poetry in hopes of the discovery of something revolutionary and/or spectacular. Just be sure that any poems you submit are previously unpublished, you may send 4 poems or less, and if any of your poems are accepted they pay $10.00 per line with a minimum payment of $300.00 per poem or $150.00 per page of prose. Good luck and please click the link below to see the full guidelines and to submit on-line.

http://poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/submissions.html

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Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://juked.com/2008/10/pharmacy.asp
“Pharmacy” by Jay Snodgrass

http://gutcult.com/Site/litjourn10/jon_woodward.htm
“Heavenly” by Jon Woodward

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Poetry's November Issue

This month I was lucky enough that the majority of the poems I marked are also available on-line at the Poetry Magazine web-site. Here are a couple of my favorites:

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182387
On Wanting to Tell [ ] about a Girl Eating Fish Eyes by Mary Szybist caught my attention because the title alone is unusual. So is the poem, which I thought would send shivers of disgust down my spine but left me with a small smile instead. It describes the loss of a loved one and the wistfulness of a sentimental moment. “You died just hours ago./Not suddenly, no. You’d been dying so long/nothing looked like itself:” While I don’t know which parent specifically passed, the parent is honored by the voice in the poem who is watching her own daughter. “I refill the glasses/and we raise a toast to you/as so and so’s daughter…” Then there is the sentimental yet strange (to me) moment of “slides into another lap/to eat another pair of slippery eyes/with her soft fingers, fingers rosier each time,” While the youngest daughter/granddaughter is eating fish eyes her parent wishes for the return of her own mother or father: “If only I could go to you, revive you./You must be a little alive still.” I love that line of “a little alive still” because most of us still feel our loved one’s presence long after they pass. You think of something they would have laughed at and realize you can’t call them up and tell them, you can’t show them a video or pictures of the event because they have passed. For those who believe in heaven, there is comfort in their being alive in spirit, perhaps looking down upon you. In the poem, the youngest daughter delights in eating fish eyes “She is placing one on her tongue,/bright as a polished coin—“ and when asked what they taste like the child simply replies “They taste like eyes.” This is how the poem ends, with a very simple remark from the child while her mother watches in wonder while thinking of how her own parent who has passed on would marvel at this child, also. It’s a strange and beautiful poem that I have trouble explaining but wanted to share with you nonetheless.

The next poem is Murray Dreaming by Stephan Edgar which can also be read by clicking:
http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182395
A trip to the aquarium brings about wonder and stillness in a boy named Murray as he watches the stillness of the cod amidst all the activity going on at the aquarium whether it be people passing through or sharks swimming in their tank. Stephen Edgar describes Murray taking in all that he sees: “Out in the day/Again, he saw the famous streets expound/Their theories about speed, the cars obey,/Racing to catch the sun….and thought it odd/That in the multitudes not everyone/Should understand as he did the profound/Profession of the cod,/That held time, motionless, unknown to sound.” The words “Profession of the cod” is a wonderful line because it is so unexpected a revelation that cod might have work to do, even if it is to remain still amidst everything else. Murray dreams at night of the fish remaining still while above in the daylight everything zips along. I really enjoy the perspective of the child which brings about the wonder that many of us as adults forget.

Also very interesting in this issue is the section on Visual Poetry which you can read more about by clicking here and seeing/reading for yourself:
http://poetryfoundation.org/journal/feature.html?id=182397

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Mitzvah Chaps

Check out this publishing blog full of interesting chapbooks that you can also find on the Press Press Press blog. Based out of Lawrence, Kansas, you can find out about poetic events to attend and you can buy the chapbooks on-line thanks to their handy-dandy Pay Pal buttons. Click below to find out more:

http://mitzvahchaps.blogspot.com/

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